Greenhouse bench



March 13, 196.2

J. A. NEARING ETAL GREENHOUSE BENCH Filed Dec. 19, 1960 A "HHHI 6 ""HH Z8 2 r 28 "WW 26 K /4 26 T5 M i 730 g w W INVENTORS James A. Nearing v James L. Nearing m BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,024,569 GREENHWUSE BENCH James A. Nearing and James L. Nearing, Brentwoorl, Md, assignors to J. A. Nearing (10., inc, a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 19, 1960, Ser. No. 76,928 3 Claims. (Cl. 47-18) This invention relates to a greenhouse bench.

Greenhouse benches are ordinarily constructed of Wood, such as redwood, or of cement. Due to the humid conditions in a greenhouse, even redwood benches rot and disintegrate. The concrete benches are costly to contruct and require considerable floor space. In addition, they are heavy and diflicult to move.

The object of this invention is to construct a lightweight, durable and inexpensive greenhouse bench.

In general, this and other objects are accomplished by forming the greenhouse bench of a light gauge, nonrustable material, such as aluminum. Channel-shaped sections are used to form the side and end walls of a rectangular frame. A channebshaped member is fixed along the bottom of one longitudinal edge of the frame so that this member serves both as a gutter and as a stiffening beam for the frame. A corrugated plate is laid on the inwardly extending flanges of the side and end members to form the bottom of the frame, the corrugations permitting water to drain out onto the bottom flanges and into the gutter.

The means by which the objects of the invention are obtained are described more fully with respect to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the greenhouse bench;

FIGURE 2 is a transverse cross-sectional view of the bench; and

FIGURE 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1.

The rectangular frame for the bench is composed of four members of channel-shaped cross-section, each of these members having a web 10, a top flange 12, and a bottom flange 14. These four members are assembled to form longitudinally extending side walls 16 and 18 and end walls 20 and 22, respectively. These members are made of light gauge sheet metal, preferably of non-rustable aluminum, so that the flanges at the corners of the frame can be flexed enough to lap upon each other and welded to form the corner joints.

A channel-shaped member 24 having a pair of outwardly bent horizontally extending flanges 26 extends along the bottom edge of longitudinal side 16, with the flanges 26 welded to the bottom of flanges 14 of the side 16 and the ends 20 and 22, respectively. This member 24 functions both as a gutter and a stiffening beam extending longitudinally the length of the rectangular beam. Member 24 is also of a non-rustable metal, such as aluminum. A second gutter can be placed along the bottom edge of side 18 if desired.

The bench is completed by seating a corrugated bottom plate 28 on the bottom stiffening flanges 14. As shown in FIGURE 2, bottom plate 28 is of slightly less width than the width of the frame so that a space is left between the longitudinal sides of the bottom plate and the side walls 16 and 18, respectively.

The bench is placed in position in a greenhouse by resting the side wall 18 on top of an angle bracket 30 which is attached to the side wall W of the greenhouse. Aluminum legs 32 support side wall 16.

In operation and after the bench has been set in place, dirt is piled on top of bottom plate 28. Water draining through the dirt passes through the spaces left by the corrugations above bottom flanges '14 and thus into the gutter member 24. Water is drained from the gutter out of the open ends thereof and down through suitably disposed downspouts. Inasmuch as the four side walls are of similar cross-section, they can be inexpensively fabricated and assembled. As the entire bench is constructed of a non-rustable material, it is not affected by the humid conditions in a greenhouse and has a much longer usable life than a wood bench. By reason of its light weight, it can be easily moved from one place to another in the greenhouse whenever desired.

Having now described the means by which the objects of the invention are obtained, we claim:

1. A greenhouse bench comprising longitudinally extending side walls joined to transversely extending end Walls and forming a rectangular frame, each of said walls being channel-shaped and having inwardly extending top and bottom stiffening flanges, a channel-shaped gutter secured to the bottom stiffening flanges adjacent one of the longitudinally extending side walls and forming a reinforcing beam for said frame, an imperforate bottom plate seated on said bottom stiffening flanges within said frame, and corrugations in said bottom plate extending transversely of and in drainage communication with said gutter.

2. A greenhouse bench as in claim 1, and being composed of a light gauge non-rustable metal.

3. A greenhouse bench as in claim 2, said corrugated bottom plate being non-attached to and loosely seated upon said bottom stifiening flanges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 987,805 Von Der Kammer Mar. 28, 1911 1,360,669 Nielsen Nov. 30, 1920 2,491,271 King Dec. 13, 1949 2,524,246 Young Oct. 3, 1950 

